Posted!

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

A portion of a mastodon tusk, a portion of the mandible with a tooth, and two limb bones were recovered on a portion of the Schepman family’s farm in Seymour, Indiana. April 18, 2019 Alton Strupp/Courier Journal

Farmer Joe Schepman loads a portion of a mastodon tusk into his pickup truck bed at the family’s farm in Seymour, Indiana. The bones were recovered last week on a portion of the family’s farm during a sewer project. “It’s unbelievable how big they are,” Schepman said. “To find something like this on our farm kind of blows your mind.” April 18, 2019 Alton Strupp/Courier Journal

Farmer Joe Schepman examines the single mastodon tooth recovered attached to a portion of a mandible during a sewer project at the Schepman family’s farm in Seymour, Indiana. Experts have stated the mastodon likely lived between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago and would have been the size of an asian elephant. April 18, 2019 Alton Strupp/Courier Journal

A look at the portion of the mastodon tusk recovered during a sewer project at the Schepman family’s farm in Seymour, Indiana. Experts state that it was most likely a male and the full tusk would have been nearly nine feet in length. April 18, 2019 Alton Strupp/Courier Journal

Farmer Joe Schepman loads mastodon limb bones into his pickup truck bed at the family’s farm in Seymour, Indiana. The bones were recovered last week on a portion of the family’s farm during a sewer project. “It’s unbelievable how big they are,” Schepman said. “To find something like this on our farm kind of blows your mind.” April 18, 2019 Alton Strupp/Courier Journal

A look at the single mastodon tooth recovered during a sewer project at the Schepman family’s farm in Seymour, Indiana. Experts have stated the mastodon likely lived between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago and would have been the size of an asian elephant. April 18, 2019 Alton Strupp/Courier Journal

Farmer Joe Schepman loads mastodon limb bones into his pickup truck bed at the family’s farm in Seymour, Indiana. The bones were recovered last week on a portion of the family’s farm during a sewer project. “It’s unbelievable how big they are,” Schepman said. “To find something like this on our farm kind of blows your mind.” April 18, 2019 Alton Strupp/Courier Journal

Farmer Joe Schepman loads mastodon limb bones into his pickup truck bed at the family’s farm in Seymour, Indiana. The bones were recovered last week on a portion of the family’s farm during a sewer project. “It’s unbelievable how big they are,” Schepman said. “To find something like this on our farm kind of blows your mind.” April 18, 2019 Alton Strupp/Courier Journal

A portion of a mastodon tusk, a portion of the mandible with a tooth, and two limb bones were recovered on a portion of the Schepman family’s farm in Seymour, Indiana. April 18, 2019 Alton Strupp/Courier Journal

A look at the single mastodon tooth and portion of the tusk recovered during a sewer project at the Schepman family’s farm in Seymour, Indiana. Experts state that it was most likely a male and the full tusk would have been nearly nine feet in length. April 18, 2019 Alton Strupp/Courier Journal

A portion of a mastodon tusk, a portion of the mandible with a tooth, and two limb bones were recovered on a portion of the Schepman family’s farm in Seymour, Indiana. April 18, 2019 Alton Strupp/Courier Journal

Farmer Joe Schepman loads a portion of a mastodon tusk into his pickup truck bed at the family’s farm in Seymour, Indiana. The bones were recovered last week on a portion of the family’s farm during a sewer project. “It’s unbelievable how big they are,” Schepman said. “To find something like this on our farm kind of blows your mind.” April 18, 2019 Alton Strupp/Courier Journal

Mastodon bones sit in the back of a pickup at the Schepman family’s farm in Seymour, Indiana. “I’m going to put them in plastic bags and keep trying to keep them moist,” Joe Schepman said. “Our hope is the Indiana State Museum will end up with them and preserve them.” April 18, 2019 Alton Strupp/Courier Journal

Interested in this topic? You may also want to view these photo galleries:

Richards told The (Seymour) Tribune he believes the mastodon would have stood between 9 and 9 ½ feet tall and been at its full size of about 12,000 pounds when it died between 10,000 and 13,000 years ago.

"It's a pretty strange feeling when you see the size of these bones," Tony Nehrt said. "Just to hear the timeline of that particular animal, the habitat that they lived in, how things have changed around here. It's interesting information."

The Nehrt and Schepman families own the farm along with Sue Nehrt's cousin, who she said lives in Florida and is driving up to Seymour this weekend to see the exciting discovery.

No one lives on the farm anymore, said Sue Nehrt, who is 56 and lives with her husband in Brownstown, Indiana.

The families hope to donate the bones to the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis. That would allow countless people to observe the mastodon remains for years to come, Tony Nehrt said.

This is not the first time mastodon remains have been found in Jackson County, Indiana.

According to The Tribune, mastodon remains were reportedly discovered in 1928 and 1949 in different parts of the Southern Indiana county. Though mastodons appeared mostly in North and Central America, they eventually spread to every continent except Antarctica and Australia.

The newly discovered bones in Seymour have been wrapped and kept in water to try to prevent further deterioration, Tony Nehrt said.

Now, the Nehrt and Schepman families are wondering what else may turn up on the Seymour farm.

"When you wake up in the morning," Sue Nehrt said, "you never know what news you're going to get."